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Testimonial – Imelda Phillips

Congregation TestimonialImelda Phillips
May 20th, 2012

When Ate Lolita Flores, our Bible study group leader, asked me to do a testimony, I tried to think of a reason why I couldn’t. But you see, that’s just the thing…when you are part of a Bible study group, the “I can’t” becomes “I can”.

So I thought I’d start with an introduction of myself before Christ (my “B.C.” life). I’m an only child, born and raised in the Philippines. I grew up attending an all girls’ Catholic school so I can say I have always known OF Christ. But my understanding of Him was confined to the usual “head” knowledge. Unfortunately we all know that mere head knowledge is not enough to get that deep joy and peace that only comes through a personal relationship with the Lord.

After my first year of college, we migrated to the US. The following month, I enrolled at a computer school in San Francisco where I met my husband who was my instructor. We got married the following year. Yes, it was fast and I was only 18 years old. And my husband will tell you (as he tells everyone) that I wrote him a note (on a Hello Kitty stationery) saying, “I came to America to find a blue eyed American with a Harvard education, and you’re it”. Looking back now, I can’t believe I did that. But you see back then, my motto was: “what Imelda wants, Imelda gets”. I’m telling you all this to make a point at how shallow my then mindset was.

We started our family right away. We are now blessed with four wonderful children. But as a very young wife and mother during my “B.C. life”, I was focused on the accumulation of wealth and I led a “trying-to-have-it-all” kind of lifestyle. We moved several times in search of the bigger and better home. But my level of happiness and satisfaction was all superficial. There was no real deep joy and contentment. In other words, as Pastor Sun Hee so cleverly preached, I felt WEIRD rather than WIRED and FRIED rather than FIRED.

Well my opportunity for that came in 2004 disguised in the form of financial difficulty. The kind of opportunity which, as Pastor Sun Hee described, took me from being bored, bland, and burnt-out to being bewildered, amazed and astonished.

In the spring of 2004, after 18 years of lucrative computer consulting business, my husband lost his major consulting contract and we also lost our entire savings. So there was no means to replenish the pot (no job), nothing to draw out from (no savings), and our eldest son was then entering College. For someone so focused on material wealth, I was in total despair and it brought me to my knees and I wrestled with God with my why, and how, and what questions. And in my “wrestling” came the beginning of my enlightenment and transformation.

Around that same time my mom met an “angel” in the person of Tita Rose Agana during one of her walks. Tita Rose became instrument of my spiritual journey. She introduced us to Ate Lolit Flores and the Fremont Bible Study Group. God started to slowly reveal Himself through the study of His Word.

I remember the very first verse that God impressed upon in my heart: “Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart” Psalm 37:4. Through the study of His Word, I slowly came to know the incredible love of God through Christ, giving way to a deep hunger and delight for His Word; and He started changing the desires of my heart.

My husband continued to be without a consulting contract for 2 years. In 2006 we were forced to sell one of our homes (the big one which I thought was my dream home). As I continued to delight in the Lord, my focus turned to HIS promises and the positive effects of my husband’s “joblessness”. I saw how it allowed my husband quality time with our children.

We ended up moving back into our smaller home, our then rental property. It was a Divine appointment that not only rescued and released me from a superficial and exhausting lifestyle (cleaning a big house is not all that fun; no wonder I felt “fried”), it turned out to be the best course of action after all. We sold our home for so much more than what it would have sold in the economy that followed, allowing us to purchase a home in Pismo Beach close to Cal Poly where our eldest son attended College.

It was there where He revealed to me the kind of life that He came for us to have, one that is overflowing with riches of the heart that nothing and no one can ever take away that causes us to get bewildered, amazed, and astonished, even in challenging times.

And it’s only by spending time in His Word that I get to really know HIM and learn to hear His still, small voice, to release control, to “let go and let God, to “be still, and know that He is God. And a Bible study group allowed me that opportunity. I look forward to Fridays when our small group enjoys fellowship, sharing praises and burdens as we study and get filled by the Word of God. I love my small group and I am in awe of their unequalled and instant support. Like when I recently suffered a back pain. One quick text and they were all praying for me. And as if their prayers were not enough, they personally came to visit me to lay healing hands including healing massage…I am truly grateful.

I may not be where I need to be, but thank God I’m not where I used to be (as Joyce Meyer would often say in her messages). Through my Bible study group, I have come to enjoy quiet time, reading devotionals, and listening to inspirational talks, allowing me to continually take delight in the Lord.

In closing, and in conjunction with Pastor Sun Hee’s recent messages, through the study of God’s Word, the power of the Holy Spirit took me from feeling WEIRED and FRIED (from relying on my own powers and pursuing treasures on earth) to feeling WIRED and FIRED and having the courage in declaring the awesome love and saving power of God. Thanks be to God.

Articles, Sermons

Sermon Transcript – Power of the Holy Spirit (Christianity 101)

POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT – Christianity 101 SeriesActs 2:1-13
May 20th, 2012
Pastor Sun Hee Kim

2 When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. 2And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. 3Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. 4All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.

5 Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. 6And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. 7Amazed and astonished, they asked, ‘Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? 8And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? 9Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, 11Cretans and Arabs—in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power.’ 12All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, ‘What does this mean?’ 13But others sneered and said, ‘They are filled with new wine.’

FRIED VS. FIRED?

We are now into week six of this Christianity 101 sermon series that Pastor Anne and I have been preaching, and today I will be sharing with you the second of this two part message on the Holy Spirit. Last week, we took a look at the Promise of the Holy Spirit, how in Scripture we have this understanding that the Holy Spirit was not an afterthought or just a New Testament thing, but clearly present from Genesis to Revelation.

Today, we are taking a look at how that promise is fulfilled through the power of the Holy Spirit, and in particular, we will be looking at this very familiar passage and scene of Scripture where the disciples get filled with the Holy Spirit and start to talk in all sorts of different languages. Quite a scene. If you didn’t know what was really going on, you’d think that it was some sort of big Rosetta Stone conference.

This is what we read earlier:

5 Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. 6And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. 7Amazed and astonished, they asked, ‘Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? 8And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language?

What strikes me about this scene is this response of the crowd that had gathered in Jerusalem that day. The Bible says that they were: bewildered, amazed, and astonished. In other words, when the Holy Spirit showed up, it was a big deal! What the people saw and experienced was not your run of the mill, everyday occurrence. They were witnesses of the incredible power of the Holy Spirit that was being manifest that day. Imagine this crowd of people, wide-eyed and just blown away (some literally!) by this supernatural and superspiritual demonstration. I don’t know about you, but it seems like to me an appropriate response to what was happening. The people were bewildered, amazed and astonished!

That was nearly two thousand years ago. Compare that to our typical response to the Holy Spirit in the 21st century: bored, bland, burnt-out. When I look around at Christians living in this day and age, unfortunately, I do not see the excitement and the amazement that was present among the first century believers. And you may agree with me on this, but more often than not, people seem bored in the church. They kind of have this attitude of knowing what to expect. They are rarely surprised. And instead of being wide-eyed, they sometimes seem like they are asleep. Of course, no one is sleeping here today, Amen?! But the truth is that this is the case for many, many Christians and churches. Boredom turns to bland spirituality, and ultimately, it becomes the breeding ground for followers of Jesus Christ simply being burnt-out.

And actually this makes sense – that when Christians are not experiencing the amazing promise, presence and power of the Holy Spirit in their lives and in the church, they get tired. Because it means they are probably doing the work on their own, out of their own strength. And they get burnt-out. Not an uncommon thing among believers.

In fact, let me make an observation: Too many Christians are feeling more fried than fired. Can anyone here amen that? Indeed, in the presence of the Holy Spirit, we should be feeling fired but most of us are just feeling fried. We are burnt out. But that is not the way our Christian lives are meant to be experienced or lived. And certainly, the Bible presents a very different picture of the experience of faith.

WOULD YOU LIKE FRIES WITH THAT?

Speaking of being fried, there is this Jay Leno quote that’s pretty hilarious but also makes me think about the way that we tend to approach the Holy Spirit sometimes. This is what Jay Leno said: “I went to McDonald’s yesterday and said, ‘I would like some fries,’ and the girl at the counter said, ‘would you like some fries with that?’” Funny right? Actually, it’s hilarious to me. We are so used to ordering fries “on the side” that when we actually order fries, the response is “would you like fries with that?”

But what’s not so funny is that this is actually the unfortunate way that I think many of us approach the Holy Spirit. We see it as something optional or something to have “on the side”. But the text that we read today in Acts chapter 2 gives a very different view of the Holy Spirit.

Actually, according to the story of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit was not an option or just something you can have on the side. The way that the Holy Spirit is portrayed in Scripture is that it is like the main thing! In fact, as I mentioned last week, when you look at the ministry of Jesus, you see that everything that Jesus did was through the Spirit – whether it be teaching or healing or even laying down his life. He did everything by the Spirit and he did nothing without it. And so is the case with the disciples. Without the Spirit, they are afraid and immobilized – huddled up in hiding in the upper room. But when the Holy Spirit came upon them and filled them, everything changed!

And what we see in this scene and in many scenes of Scripture is that experiencing the power of the Holy Spirit is something that is a standard and the norm rather than the exception to the rule. In other words, what happened on the day of Pentecost would not be some sort of rare occurrence or “once-in-awhile” happening. It would be the precedent for all followers of Jesus thereafter to experience. And this picture and precedent is one of incredible, incredible power.

Let me pause here for a moment and just highlight what we see in Acts 2 – this picture of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost. This is what we see: One, we see that the Holy Spirit is described as coming like a “violent wind”. In the Amplified Bible, this description is offered in this way: “the rushing of a violent tempest blast”. Eugene Peterson in The Message translation describes it as: “a strong wind, gale force.” In the New Living Translation, it’s put this way: “the roaring of a mighty windstorm”. And just one more for fun. This one from Young’s Literal Translation. It’s simply translated as “a violent breath”. Any of you married folk wake up in the morning next to your spouse who has “violent breath”?!

Anyway, the point is that when the Holy Spirit appeared, it was noticeable. Things got stirred up. People’s hair got a little messy and the sound was pretty enormous. In other words, the picture of the Holy Spirit is one of power. Incredible power.

But the second thing that we see in this picture of the Holy Spirit is that it filled the disciples. And the sense here is that it filled them completely. They weren’t just touched by the Holy Spirit. This incredible thing described as a rushing wind didn’t just come and brush up against them and leave as quickly as it came. No, the disciples were filled. From head to toe. In mind, body and heart, the Holy Spirit just poured itself into their very beings. And they were instantly transformed. What just a few minutes earlier were a group of trembling and timid men, became a group of powerful leaders speaking with incredible authority.

Which brings me to the third thing that we see in this picture of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit gave abilities for ministry. The Holy Spirit is seen in the passage as actually enabling the disciples for ministry. This is what we read in Acts 2:4:

4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.

Did you hear that? The Spirit gave them ability. This is the promise of Jesus fulfilled in the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. The disciples would be clothed with “power” from on high as we read last week in Acts 1:8. And power, indeed, were they clothed with on this day of Pentecost! Incredible power. And I want to make sure that you don’t overlook or take this picture for granted.

So let me give you a real quick Mini Greek Lesson. This is stuff I learned in seminary, so I want to use it in moments like this to make me feel good about all the tuition I paid. You all get this for free, by the way. In the original Greek, the word which we translate in the English translation of Scripture as “power” is the word “dunamis”. Dunamis. Does that sound like any word to you in the English language? That’s right, dynamite. We get the word dynamite from this Greek word “dunamis” which is the word used to describe the power of the Holy Spirit! And understand this. It’s not that dynamite is used as a comparison to describe the Holy Spirit. It’s the other way around. It’s the Holy Spirit that is used as a comparison to describe dynamite! I’m not sure if you catch what I’m saying here. When people are in the presence of something powerful, they are thinking…hmmm, what is this powerful thing like? Oh yah, it’s powerful like the Holy Spirit! Dunamis power. And friends, that power is available to each and every one of us.

So let me give you a real quick Mini Faith Lesson now. This one I did not learn in seminary, but just from trying to live life and faith. And what this mini faith lesson is about is connecting promise to power. How do we take the promise of the Holy Spirit given by Jesus and make it a reality of power in our lives? By praying and waiting. Like so many promises of Scripture, the caveat here is to really want it and to really seek it. And that comes in the form of prayer. We need to pray to God and ask for the power of the Holy Spirit to be manifest in our lives and in the way that we live out our faith. And we need to pray together and be together – as a community of faith. Unity in this type of prayer is always more effective. And after fervently and intentionally praying for it, we wait. We wait in expectation and we wait with hope. And we wait with others who have prayed for the same.

And this may sound a bit simple, but it is the foundation of our faith. And it is certainly the precursor to experiencing the dunamis power of the Holy Spirit that has been promised to us in Scripture. This dunamis power, this Holy Spirit power, when it is manifest in our lives, everything changes. We move from being bored, bland and burnt-out to being bewildered, amazed and astonished. And then, we really live our lives in ways consistent to those that are filled by the Holy Spirit.

SUPERSIZING OUR FAITH

So how do we apply this message to our lives? I know it may seem like I’m referencing fast food too much in this sermon today, but I’m going to make one more reference. I don’t know if you remember, but there used to be a time when you go to McDonald’s you could order one of those McDeal Meals and actually supersize it. So basically, you are taking something that’s already pretty hefty in calories and you are asking for a bigger portion of it – a supersized portion. Now, I’m not recommending anyone to supersize anything at McDonald’s per se. I’m not even recommending anyone eat at McDonald’s, period. But if there’s anything we should be supersizing, it should be our faith.

We need to stop living these quiet, timid, and unimpressive versions of our faith, because when you think about it – real faith, real Christianity is nothing less than supersized. We need to practice the power of the Holy Spirit that involves:

One, Living large. We need to be living boldly and claiming the dunamis power in everything that we do and are about.

Two, Not squinting. Ultimately, I believe that real faith lived in real power is nothing that we need to squint our eyes at to see. Remember that when the Holy Spirit showed up, it was noticeable. Live out faith in noticeable ways. Let people see your faith and let them be bewildered, amazed, astonished.

Three, Loudly proclaiming. When the Holy Spirit is present and manifest in our lives, we are called to witness and testify to that power. Or in other words, to speak about it and to speak about it loudly. This is what the disciples did on the day of Pentecost. They started proclaiming loudly so that other people could hear the message and respond. Next week, you are going to hear some amazing stories from our very own members of how the Holy Spirit has been working in their lives and in their blessing of being together in community. And they are going to be proclaiming loudly. And you are going to be bewildered, amazed, and astonished. It’s going to be awesome.

In the meanwhile, I invite you to supersize your faith this week. Seek and pray for the power of the Holy Spirit, and wait for your heart to be stirred. It’s coming and when it comes, everything will change. Amen?

Articles, Sermons

Sermon Transcript: Promise of the Holy Spirit (Christianity 101)

101.5: PROMISE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT – Christianity 101 SeriesLuke 24:44-49; Acts 1:1-5
May 13th, 2012
Pastor Sun Hee Kim

44 Then he said to them, ‘These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you—that everything written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled.’ 45Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, 46and he said to them, ‘Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, 47and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. 48You are witnesses of these things. 49And see, I am sending upon you what my Father promised; so stay here in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.’

1 In the first book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus did and taught from the beginning 2until the day when he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. 3After his suffering he presented himself alive to them by many convincing proofs, appearing to them over the course of forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God. 4While staying with them, he ordered them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait there for the promise of the Father. ‘This’, he said, ‘is what you have heard from me; 5for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.’

WEIRD CHRISTIANITY

We’re continuing this morning in our series on Christianity 101, and I will be sharing with you today part one of a two-part message on the Holy Spirit. But before I get too deep in this message about this third person of the Trinity, I want to begin today by talking a little about the nature of our faith. I don’t know how often you actually sit and just think about what our faith really is and what it’s called to be and how we are called to live it out in this world. And I don’t know if you have ever considered the sheer complexity of our faith and how difficult it is sometimes to really grasp it all. And I wonder if you have ever paused to consider what our faith – this thing called Christianity – must look like to a world that has never stepped foot inside a church or opened up the Bible or heard of Jesus.

There’s this story that’s told in Mark chapter 9 – about a man who comes to Jesus and asks him to heal his son who had been possessed by a demon since childhood. Apparently, this son often went into fits of seizures and violent convulsions, putting his very life at risk. Not surprisingly, this man was desperate, and asks Jesus, “If you are able to do anything, have pity on us and help us.” To which Jesus replies, “If you are able! All things can be done for the one who believes.” Then follows a line of Scripture that contains a confession that I think resonates with so many of us here today: “I believe; help my unbelief.”

This is my confession. When I look at our faith – Christianity and what it means to follow Jesus – there is so much that I want to believe. And, guess what, there is so much I have a hard time believing. That’s right. Even for a pastor, this thing called faith is not an easy deal. I wrestle with its complexity, because I know that there are so many wonderful and amazing and powerful things about faith on the one hand, but also that there are a lot of very difficult to understand things about faith on the other hand. And this is the case for both people outside the church as well as inside the church.

So, let me just name what I think is the obvious here: Christianity at its best is profound and practical, but for most people most of the time, it’s just simply weird.

There, I said it. Christianity is weird. I mean, have you ever considered how really, really weird our faith is? Consider some of these tenets and statements of our faith:

Let’s start with something real basic: The Bible says God created everything by just speaking things into existence. And the Bible says that took place in just six days. Weird, right? Seventh day, God just rested. Apparently all that speaking was tiring work. I know, I’m tired just after giving one sermon.

Or how about, that story in the Book of Numbers that talks about this guy by the name of Balaam who gets upset because his donkey refuses to do what he wants it to and starts beating it. And somehow, God gives the donkey the ability to speak, and it says to Balaam, “What have I done to you, that you have struck me these three times?” A talking donkey! Weird, right? But not apparently to Balaam. Without skipping a beat, he talks back to the donkey, “Well, now that you bring it up… it’s because you made a fool of me.” Anyone here who has a pet knows that an animal making a fool out of you is not a weird thing. Happens all the time. Your pet actually start speaking human words to you, on the other hand? Weird.

Or how about this. “We are saved by the blood of the Lamb.” If you have been in a Christian church for some time now, that might not seem so out of the ordinary. But if faith is new to you, you may be thinking – “Blood transfusion?” That’s just weird.

Let’s face it. There are many things in the Christian faith that seems pretty weird. But let me make an observation, or more like an assessment here:

Weirdness is caused by lack of depth and lack of understanding.

Ultimately, all of these things that I have mentioned and more seem weird because we just don’t know what they are really about – we simply don’t understand. And this is why our current series on Christianity 101 is so important. Kind of going back to the basics to make sure that we have not missed anything, that we have not taken anything for granted. Whether we are talking about the nature of God, or the identity of Jesus, or the inspiration of Scripture, or what it means to be saved, without proper study and deeper speculation, all these aspects of faith (though they may seem common) will ultimately remain just simply weird.

And the idea of the Holy Spirit is no different; very few people have a right and full grasp of it. It’s just something that we have come to accept over time. If not in its full understanding and entirety, at least in its vocabulary. In other words, we talk about the Holy Spirit, but we really don’t know fully what its about and perhaps even what we’re really saying when we do talk about it. And what has happened is that we have fallen into some misunderstandings/myths about the Holy Spirit. Let me just mention three myths that seem pretty prevalent (in my opinion):

One myth that many of us hold to about the Holy Spirit is that it’s only for Charismatics. We have this image of the Holy Spirit manifesting itself in Pentecostal worships where people are raising their hands and shouting, “Hallelujah! Praise the Lord!”, and praying in tongue, and falling down all over the place, engaging in spiritual warfare, and we say, they have been filled with the Spirit. That’s for charismatics. Not for United Methodists. It’s kind of like the light bulb jokes I’ve heard. How many Methodists does it take to change a light bulb? At least fifteen. One to change the light bulb and three committees to approve the change and decide who brings the potato salad. How many Pentecostals does it take to change the light bulb? Ten. One to change the light bulb and nine to pray against the spirit of darkness. Hallelujah! They’re filled with the Spirit.

Actually, the Holy Spirit is not just a charismatic thing. It’s not just for Pentecostals. It’s every bit Methodist and Wesleyan as it is for any other church or denomination. No single group of Christians have a monopoly on the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit needs to be present and recognized in all churches.

Here’s the second myth that many of us hold to about the Holy Spirit. Kind of like the first myth: It’s only for some people. I think there is this grave misunderstanding that the Holy Spirit plays favorites. That the Holy Spirit rests on, or fills up, or works through those that are spiritually more mature or more elite. That the Holy Spirit is like a symbol of rank in the church or the Body of Christ. And so, many people feel that they are not as strong as or good as other Christians because they feel they have not experienced the Holy Spirit. Actually, it’s this very type of thinking that got the Corinthian church in trouble. They started using the Holy Spirit as a status symbol dividing those of the “in” spiritual crowd from those of the “out”. The Apostle Paul tells them, the Holy Spirit is not about that. It’s actually about unity and binding the members of the Body of Christ together. Why? Because the Holy Spirit is available for all.

The third and last myth that I want to address about the Holy Spirit is this understanding or belief that it is only a New Testament thing. A lot of times, when people think about the Holy Spirit, they equate it to the day of Pentecost. That not only was that the birth of the Christian church, but that it was also the birth of the Holy Spirit. That on this day, the Holy Spirit made its grand debut world premiere appearance for the very first time.

Those that accept this myth also believe that there are three eras in spiritual history. The era of “God the Father” where God is present in creation and in the history of Israel. The era of “Jesus the Son” where God is incarnate in this man from Nazareth and these miracles are performed and these teachings take place. And finally, the era of the “Holy Spirit” which begins on Pentecost and remains in the existence of the Christian church.

But the truth is that the Holy Spirit is not something that’s just found in the New Testament. It’s not something that just appears on the day of Pentecost.

IN THE BEGINNING…

In fact, upon a deeper look and a fuller study of the Holy Spirit, we will see that the Holy Spirit has always been around. The Bible proclaims the presence and the work of the Holy Spirit from Genesis to Revelation. Flip through the pages of Scripture, both Old and New Testament – whatever version or translation you want to use – and you will see the Holy Spirit just all over the place.

And it is important to note this so we understand that the Holy Spirit was not an afterthought. It wasn’t like God suddenly coming to the realization that, “Uh oh, my son has been crucified, and I can’t leave the disciples to simply fend for themselves. I better do something. I better give something. Hmmm, what could I do? Oh, how about I create the Holy Spirit and provide that as something that would help them?” Obviously, this was not the case. The Holy Spirit is not an afterthought or something offered reactively in light of the void left by Jesus’ death. The Holy Spirit was present and was the plan from the beginning of creation.

Specifically, when we look deeper into Scripture, we see that the Holy Spirit was/is (first of all) part of the creative work of God. In Genesis 1:1-2, we read: “In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters.” That word we see as “wind” in this passage is the word, ruach, in the original Hebrew, and it can mean, wind or breath, but also Spirit. In other words, the Bible says right off the bat that the Holy Spirit was present in the work of creation. Later on in chapter one of Genesis, there is this interesting verse where it reads, “Then God said, ‘Let us make humankind in our image…” Did you hear that? The plurality of the pronouns, “us” and “our”. Another piece of evidence that the Holy Spirit was present since the beginning and certainly that the Holy Spirit is present in the pages of the Old Testament.

We also see in Scripture, that the Holy Spirit was/is (secondly) part of the saving work of Jesus. It’s actually amazing how much the Holy Spirit is connected to the person and ministry of Jesus. Consider these verses: Luke 1:35 – Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of Him. Matthew 4:1 – Jesus was led by the Spirit. Matthew 3:13-17 – Jesus was anointed by the Holy Spirit at His baptism. Hebrews 9:14 – Jesus offered himself up as a sacrifice through the Spirit. Romans 1:4 – Jesus was raised from the dead by the power of the Spirit. And this list of passages could go on and on. It’s almost as if there was nothing that Jesus did that was apart from the Holy Spirit. Clearly, the Holy Spirit was part of the saving work of Jesus.

Which leads us to our final understanding of what we see the Holy Spirit was or is about as we discover in Scripture. The Holy Spirit was and is part of the living work of believers. Jesus demonstrated it in his life and ministry, and when he was getting ready to leave the disciples physically, he offered them the promise of the very Spirit that was present and active in his life and ministry. This is what we read earlier in that passage in Luke:

48 You are witnesses of these things. 49And see, I am sending upon you what my Father promised; so stay here in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.’

And here are the words from the passage in Acts:

4 While staying with them, he ordered them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait there for the promise of the Father. ‘This’, he said, ‘is what you have heard from me; 5for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.’

Jesus promises this very presence of the Holy Spirit to his followers. And it’s really interesting how this Holy Spirit is spoken of by Jesus. In the original Greek, the word that we translate Holy Spirit is the word “paraclete”. The word paraclete, literally means “one who is called alongside of”. And the word paraclete is also referred to in the English translation as Comforter, Counselor, Advocate. It’s this person that walks with us, encourages us, strengthens us, guides us, and intercedes for us. Jesus tells the disciples, this Holy Spirit – this paraclete – I’m going to make available to you, so that you will never ever be alone. The presence of the Holy Spirit will forever be the evidence of how much God loves you, Jesus says. How much I love you. And it will be available to you. You just need to know that, recognize that, and claim that. And there’s nothing weird about that.

WIRED CHRISTIANITY

So, how do we experience more of this Holy Spirit in our lives? How do we go from approaching the Holy Spirit as this weird thing to something that we can really tap into? Kind of get hardwired and connected to?

Well, in order to tap into the power of the Holy Spirit or experience what I call “wired Christianity” (rather than weird Christianity), we need to:

One, simply be aware of the promise. Understand that the Holy Spirit is not an afterthought nor something accidental. It’s very intentional and very available to us. And in fact, it’s promised to us. So we need to be aware of that.

Two, learn more about the presence. With anything in faith, we can only use what we know. And so next week, we learn more about the Holy Spirit, and in particular, how we can experience its power in our lives. But the key here is learning and knowing. Make this your commitment, especially in this series as we go through Christianity 101, not just to take faith for granted but to learn, really learn.

And last, keep your eye open to the prompting. Just look around, and begin to see things with ready eyes. Look for God working around you, and when you see something that is extraordinary, praise God for that, and tell yourself that it’s the Holy Spirit at work. And let that work remind you that God loves you, and that God is wanting to clothe you with power from on high. More on that next week. For now, let’s just experience this gift of the Spirit together, as we continue to worship and as we pray right now. Amen?